F350 shift tube failures…is there a best solution?

I have had my 2001 f350 since 2003. I bought it with 20,000 miles and we are bumping 300k. It's been incredible and has always done everything asked of it. 7.3 power stroke, crew cab with 8' bed. 
We are on the third or fourth shift tube and this one is starting to fail. It starts by losing smoothness (but even new it's not as smooth as most auto shifters) then it starts losing reference to park. You have to lift the shifter to start it. 
That's when you go ahead and order a new part because it's going to break. 
It seems to be a well know weak link. Is there a better solution/best manufactured part? This last Dorman tube lasted maybe 25000 miles. 

Well, first, don't buy a Dorman part unless you are needing a door stop.

Buy the oe Ford part.

Oddly enough, I just fixed this issue on my Excursion. Have you loctite'd the two torx  bolts under the dash? It's free, takes less than 10 minutes, and made a much bigger difference than the shift tube for me

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

It was a Dead On The Highway moment. So. Considering the original part failed at around 100k I was hoping for a superior aftermarket solution. 

In reply to calteg :

That is interesting. I have not done that. I will get up under there this afternoon. Thank you!

I have done my last two F150s.  The Dorman part didn't fix anything.  It might have been MORE sloppy when I was done.  The OE Ford part worked some, but there is a bushing on the cable end that wears as well.  It fixed about half of the problem and I never got around to doing the bushing.

I figured for as slowly as the problem progresses, I would just do it when it needs it.

I posted about this problem about 8 months ago... there are a lot of things that go wrong with these Ford shifters. Mine had a broken bracket, and the plastic bushings were shot. I replaced the tube and plunger, though the tube was actually fine. The cable also gets loose, and that's definitely the case with mine. Where the shifter meets the plunger inside the tube was also worn, so I shimmed it with a washer and that made the left to right sloppiness better. Also, I found a little black piece of plastic attached to the gear indicator was broken. It's now better, but honestly, it's still no great. The two torx bolts in back were fine. 
 

It's a known issue and I would love to hear a good solution.

The easiest way to identify automobiles with poor automatic transmission shifters is to check for a blue oval on the hood.  They are universally bad, going back decades to the trucks that would slip into reverse unless you very deliberately made sure it was in park.

In reply to jh36 :

Mine was bad enough that the car wasn't reliably starting in "park."  Only one of the bolts was loose, tightened it up and now it starts everytime and the gear indicator is actually in the ballpark of which gear I'm in

In reply to calteg :

Junk yard scrounging, Christmas tree decorating and last minute warm weather painting has delayed my investigation, but I will be on it tomorrow. Thanks and stay tuned....

Off topic but this was magically at my local yard. I may be back for my FJ40 project. 

This was also there...very strange day at the Yard...

CyberEric said:

I posted about this problem about 8 months ago... there are a lot of things that go wrong with these Ford shifters. Mine had a broken bracket, and the plastic bushings were shot. I replaced the tube and plunger, though the tube was actually fine. The cable also gets loose, and that's definitely the case with mine. Where the shifter meets the plunger inside the tube was also worn, so I shimmed it with a washer and that made the left to right sloppiness better. Also, I found a little black piece of plastic attached to the gear indicator was broken. It's now better, but honestly, it's still no great. The two torx bolts in back were fine. 
 

It's a known issue and I would love to hear a good solution.

I will dive deeper tomorrow. Stay tuned...I am going to locate the two torx bolts for starters and go from there. 

Swap to a 6speed?